Badiou and Cinema - Hardcover

Alex Ling

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0748641130 ISBN 13: 9780748641130

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2010

Synopsis

This book offers an in-depth examination of cinema and its philosophical significance. Alex Ling employs the philosophy of Alain Badiou to answer the question central to all serious film scholarship - namely, 'can cinema be thought?' Treating this question on three levels, the author first asks if we can really think what cinema is, at an ontological level. Second, he investigates whether cinema can actually think for itself; that is, whether or not it is truly 'artistic'. Finally he explores in what ways we can rethink the consequences of the fact that cinema thinks. In answering these questions, the author uses well-known films ranging from Hiroshima mon amour to Vertigo to The Matrix to illustrate Badiou's philosophy as well as to consider the ways in which his work can be extended, critiqued and reframed with respect to the medium of cinema.

About this title

Review:

As learned as it is exciting, Alex Ling has produced a textbook example of how to investigate Badiou's Platonist Cinema with utter rigour and fidelity. From Hiroshima Mon Amour to The Matrix, he provides readings of films that mix his own ingenuity with Badiou's insights into the inessence of cinema. Yet Badiou and Cinema is more than simply an illustration of philosophical thought: it opens up the possibility of a truly thoughtful cinema, a cinema that thinks events in its own way, beyond the exigencies of both extant film theory and philosophy. --Dr John Mullarkey, Professor of Film and Television, Kingston

About the Author:

Alex Ling lectures in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0748641130
• ISBN 13: 9780748641130
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224